What A Cow Can Teach You About Running

Thanks to being passed by a cow, Jen Miller no longer takes her running so seriously. Photo: The New York Times

One blogger received a strange revelation about taking the sport too seriously.

Thanks to being passed by a cow, Jen Miller no longer takes her running so seriously. Photo: The New York Times

New York Times running blogger Jen Miller was once schooled by a cow–that’s right, a cow. A former competitive runner who usually finished in the top three in her age group, Miller suddenly got injured. At that point, she “hit rock bottom” when, during a run she was outrun by a nearby cow for nearly 100 meters.

“I thought about quitting. Maybe I’d take up biking,” she mused. “Maybe I’d become one of those power walkers with the bright white shoes who did laps around my town’s park.”

But Miller kept at it.

The hard part for her was “getting past this perfection block” where she wasn’t out to compete and win every time.

Suddenly, “I wasn’t running for medals or gift certificates or free shoes,” she writes. “I ran because the courses were there, friends were there, the finish line was there.”

Miller is now back at marathon training, but completing a novice schedule.

“I’ll get in peak form eventually, but I’m not rushing it,” she admits. “I’m going to enjoy the open road. And a drink or two along the way.”

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